In whom do we trust?

Israeli President Moshe Katzav put on quite a performance on national television last night.

Wagging his finger in the air, pounding the table, and shouting at various points throughout his 50-minute harangue, Katzav's appearance was both gripping and detestable as he sought to deflect allegations that he was a serial rapist and sex offender.

For a country that has been inundated of late with allegations of corruption and dishonesty at the highest levels of power, there is something even more disconcerting about the sight of the nation's president accused of such terrible crimes.

Katzav now joins the long list of prominent personalities, ranging from the prime minister himself to the finance minister to a former justice minister, all of whom are suspected of various types of offenses.

We'll leave it to the courts – including those of public opinion – to decide their fates, but the spate of such cases points to a fundamental problem underlying Israel's leadership – namely, a lack of faith in G-d.

Israel is currently ruled by people who look out only for their own narrow self-interest. They are not guided by a sense of historic responsibility, national duty or Zionist commitment, nor are they anchored in an abiding sense of trust in the One Above.

With the Palestinians hurling rockets at our cities, and the Iranians threatening to decimate them, Israel can not afford the "luxury" of having self-centered, and self-interested, people at its helm.

What we need now is a leadership that is guided by faith, and by certainty in the justness of our cause. That, as always, is our surest guarantee of success.